2025 04 13th
Introduction to the Series
HAVE BEEN ASKED to provide reflections about our approach to sacred music here at Saint Mary’s in Muskegon. I will write about this subject in our parish bulletin each week. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself reading about the sacred liturgy, because church music is inseparable from it. Indeed, he who embarks upon a study of the “THESAURUS MUSICAE SACRAE” (that’s how Vatican II referred 1 to sacred music) will end up being educated about Theology, the Bible, the saints, church history, the Holy Mass, our Savior’s life, and much else besides.
Some of our parishioners are old enough to remember the reign of Pope Pius XII, who courageously saved countless Jews from the Nazi Gestapo. The chief Jewish rabbi of Rome, Israel Anton Zoller, was deeply moved by the bravery shown by Pius XII. After WWII, he converted to Catholicism and took the name “Eugenio” to honor that pope (whose name before accepting the papacy was Eugenio Pacelli) and also chose as his godfather the pope’s personal confessor, Augustin Cardinal Bea.
I mention Rabbi Zoller because we’ve been discussing how church music is inseparable from its sacred text. Zoller was a biblical scholar (no great surprise, since he had served as Rome’s chief rabbi). Zoller published a book which attempted to prove that every word our Savior said during his public life was sung, not spoken.2 If Zoller’s theory is correct, we can better understand how Jesus communicated with large crowds, as singing ‘carries’ the voice. But regardless of whether Zoller got it right, we know that all the ancient poems (such as Homer’s Odyssey) weren’t spoken; they were sung.
Music and singing, therefore, are not lightly dismissed by any shrewd observer of the human condition. Nor can they be rightly considered “effeminate.” Anyone who doubts this should read the life of Saint Isaac Jogues (d. 1646), taking note of how Jogues sang the service of the dead, shortly after René Goupil’s martyrdom. Indeed, music and singing played a huge role in the work of the PATRON SAINTS of North America—and the annals of history have never recorded men braver than these. (Candidly, they were fearless.) And you’ll hear more about these saints before this series is finished.
To be continued.
1 The Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art” (SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM, §112). To reiterate this statement, §114 of the same document says: “The treasury of sacred music (thesaurus musicae sacrae) is to be preserved and fostered with great care.”
2 On this, see pages 42-64 of The Nazarene: Studies in New Testament Exegesis (London: B. Herder Book Company, 1950) by Eugenio Zolli (of the University of Rome) translated into English by Father Cyril Vollert, Professor of Theology at Saint Mary’s College (Saint Marys, Kansas).
